A Moment With London Grammar

Midway through their first SXSW run, Hannah Reid, Dan Rothman, and Dot Major of London Grammar met us in Austin's overcrowded Moonshine Patio Bar and Grill to tell us their favorite band stories, including the whimsical way the three first came together.

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As best friends do, British trio and band mates Hannah Reid, Dan Rothman, and Dot Major of London Grammar finish each other's sentences. In the midst of their US tour, we sat down with the rising stars as they recounted memories (they know each other's stories too)—from opening for Coldplay at SXSW just last month and hearing themselves on the radio for the first time to a Facebook photo that first brought the band together.

HB: You opened for Coldplay at the SXSW iTunes Festival. What was that like?

Dan Rothman: It was incredible! They were just so lovely to us, as were Imagine Dragons, and they were both fans of our music, which amazing. Easily one of the best nights we've ever had as a band.

Dot Major: Actually we woke up and thought was it a dream.

HB: I read that the band was formed because Dan saw a picture of Hannah on Facebook with a guitar and asked her to collaborate. Is that true?

Dan Rothman: It makes me sound a bit creepy. The truth is more that me and Hannah did know each other a little bit beforehand. We'd only just met and become friends. Hannah is actually best friends with my girlfriend, who wasn't yet my girlfriend at the time. So we added each other on Facebook, as you do, and then I saw a picture of her with a little acoustic guitar. That was the first time I was aware that she was a musician, so we got to talking about music, and it was what led us to playing together.

Hannah Reid: I actually have a question. I've never ever asked this—

Dan Rothman: This is going to be interesting.

Hannah Reid: What made you think that I'd be a good musician from that picture?

Dan Rothman: I think I was just at university and I wanted to meet a new musician.

Dot Major: Obviously Hannah is ridiculous, but imagine if you'd gotten to know that Hannah was actually really rubbish? That would have been awkward.

HB: Crisis averted! How did Dot get involved?

Dan Rothman: Dot was kind of different. When I did get together with my girlfriend, she knew Dot. I think she had a bit of a crush on you, Dot, to be quite honest. And she said, "There's this guy. He's a drummer. You should meet him." We met at a house party, and I think again I went for a jam with him, and he joined, just like that.

HB: So we really have a lot to thank your girlfriend for.

Hannah Reid: She would love it that you say that.

Dot Major: I've still never seen this Facebook picture of Hannah as well. Can you put it in our scrapbook?

Hannah Reid: Do you know what is the best thing about this picture? It's what I'm wearing. At Nottingham University you, if you wanted to dance all night to pop music, which is what me and all my girlfriends did, you would go to this club called Ocean. Now in the band and in ordinary life, I wear jumpers and jeans. But I couldn't go to this club not wearing a tiny dress. All my girlfriends now look back on it and say, "I would never wear those outfits out in London," but in Nottingham for some reason you couldn't go out not wearing a dress. So I'm wearing this really tiny dress in the picture, like full makeup and everything--and then I've got the guitar.

Dot Major: Please can we find that picture. I must have heard about this picture about a hundred times, and I've never seen it.

HB: Having three members in the band who all take part in the writing process, do you ever run into creative differences?

Dot Major: I was chatting to Chris Martin of Coldplay the other day, and he said writing in a band, if there is no tension, it's like a string on a violin, if there's no tension it just is nothing. We went through a period making the album, where there was a negative amount of tension, but then we had this breakthrough and decided one thing we all agreed on was the space—the breaks and silences.

Hannah Reid: It's always been our primary goal, to keep space in the music. The way that, say, the guitar and vocal interact is massively important to us.

Dot Major: And we learned that if there are disagreements between us, we sort them out as a band before we go to anyone else.

HB: Do you remember hearing yourself on the radio for the first time?

Dan Rothman: Me and Dot, the first time we genuinely heard it was in the car. The song "Hey Now" came on the radio, and we turned it up really loud. Then he winds down the window, and he shouts to somebody, "Listen, it's my song! I'm on the radio!' I just thought to myself, you could have just had a CD on and said the same thing.

Hannah Reid: Maybe that's why people thought my voice was a man in Hey Now. Maybe it was all because of that moment.